So it shall be in the end
by The Wise Duck
Summary: Sequel to As it was in the Beginning.  Sixty years has passed and they are now at the end of their lives
1. Ron

Kim Possible and all the characters within are the creations and property of Disney.

With pale trembling hands he hung up the phone. Fumbling for a moment for his cane, when he found its Dragons head, he slowly started to turn. Again the pain shot through him and he paused for a moment to find his center and focus through it. He willed against the growing darkness in him and slowly shoved it back, all the while keeping a calm demeanor. No one outside was to know what was happening.

When it was finally gone, he was able to lean into the cane and he started to walk back down the hall toward the room. He still managed to keep fairly straight and tall, his hair, still the short, shaggy blond, very thin on top (but no bald spots), his hyper metabolism allowing him to maintain that lanky frame, although the muscle he had finally been able to acquire in his twenties had softened somewhat due to the sedentary nature of his life the last few years. His skin was wrinkled, his freckles replaced by liver spots. But his large brown eyes were clear—and filled with determination.

The phone call had been to a Grandson, one with whom he placed the most trust (he trusted them all but this was the one who currently was the active Field Operations Head of the Team), letting him know to put the wheels in motion.

He knew he was heading down this hall for the last time. And he was glad.

He was glad because the little things that annoyed him would shortly pass into nothing. These things, such as his artificial left foot (lost to the slashing rotors of a mad 'tree chopper' device) chaffed constantly as he hadn't bothered to have the worn padding replaced, the reoccurring pain in his right side from his two artificial ribs (replacements for those shattered by a sonic wand torture device) the cause of a constant dull ache, and of course he still had the ghost feelings from the missing little finger of his right hand (yanked off when he had frantically been grasping at a cable when falling) let alone the way he had always disliked the feel of the entire left side of his jaw/face being made of plastic from the train crash. Petty annoyances for someone his age but annoyances none the less.

But these had been the physical costs of the life that he had gone into open-eyed and standing upright. And as with all physical pain, these too would pass. When one focused on the other things, the ones that had made the journey so rewarding, it changed the whole perspective.

By now he had reached the door and laying his hand on the pad to activate the autoslider, he had to pause and rethink those last couple of thoughts.

His own physical pain would pass. It was his to deal with and find balance. And in the scheme of things, considering seven plus decades, while his body had paid what many would consider an enormous price—

_Next to her, as in all things, as it has always been, I have been the second banana, the follow-on. And despite everything I tried, despite the way I threw myself into things, she still took the brunt unto herself—and paid the price._

She was almost not visible in the bed through the tubes, feeds, monitor wiring and scanners. Only her face, and that scarlet hair, still holding its color, (with just a little bit of help). Her face was pale, as thin, and wrinkled as a pharaoh's mummy. That was all that was visible of her, the rest being covered by sheets and blankets. What there was of her to cover.

He stopped by her right side and gazed at her. _She called herself a normal girl out to save the world. And she never thought of the cost to herself. She stopped wearing bikini's by the time she was twenty-three because of the wounds and scars, stopped going to the beach period by twenty-seven for the same reason. When that biological crud spilled and melted her left arm—and finally that car bomb that took both her legs—_

For what had to be the millionth time in their relationship, he shook his head. _And in later years, from exposure to all the stupid beams, rays, chemicals and crap. Breast cancer, the loss of one lung, having to use an electronic box after losing her vocal cords, almost the complete loss of her vision to where she can barely tell the difference between light and dark._

_And here she is, when by all medical reason, her body, her eighty-eight year old body is still functioning when all agree that by all medical logic, it should have surrendered to the inevitable long ago._

That brought a loving and yet sad smile to his face. _They just don't know that my KP just can't ever give up._

And she would not. Not if she had any say in the matter. None of the injuries that he had just rattled off in his mind had ever done more than direct her boundless energies and attention into other/different ways to accomplish the same tasks. She had championed and helped developed prosthetics that allowed her to keep going. She had become, along with everything else, the forefront of the fight of the handicapped for normalization in the manner only she could. Only the final, ultimate threats that faced her now, maladies and conditions insidious in their slow attacks, accompanied by the fervent pleas of her children, Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren (and he had recently been told, due to the small indiscretion of one of those, a Great-Great Grandchild was on the way) had moved her from the field of action to the field of supervision and instruction.

She had become Trouble Shooting Guru to the world, demanding and getting top dollar from Corporations which went right into charities while those same charities, the homeless and unfortunate received her talents free of charge.

It had been a full life.

_And I've had the honor and the privilege to be there for all of it. She always insisted that I was her partner. I went along with that but I knew better. When it came to the missions, I knew that I was always the sidekick, the distraction, and I've never regretted that role. Each of us had our talents and our abilities and when we finally learned that and honed them and actually practiced at it, it got so much better and we really were a _TEAM!

_For the roll of second banana was made up for in our life and our love. There we were and we are partners in the total, true and complete sense of the word. Yes, we had our arguments, we exchanged words, _(she _is_ a redhead) _but we made a promise and a point never to go to bed angry even if we had to stay up until dawn to get things worked out. We have loved each other spiritually every single moment since our friendship started in Pre-K eighty-four years ago, we've loved each other physically from that wonderful night at the Prom until the night before she was finally brought in here._

He could feel his eyes tearing. _And it wasn't about the awards, the ceremonies, the galas, the joint sessions. I could see it in her face, hear it in her tone, feel it in her touch. It was always about sitting on the grass in the park, holding the babies, the first caresses in the morning when we woke. Even when she could no longer see, those she could _feel, _those she could still intimately experience and that was all she needed._

The tears were now rolling down his cheeks as he thought, _and now she's fighting this battle, this last battle, because she doesn't want to give that up._

Choking back his own emotion, he stepped closer to her side. _Well my Love, my whole Universe, I'm afraid that this is not a battle that you can ultimately win. And your only hurting yourself more than you can imagine by prolonging this. It's time that you surrender your burden, and take the peace you so richly deserve._


	2. Kim

A world of mostly darkness and occasional grayness. A world of sensations that were few and far between as so much of the world consisted of a constant burning of torn, ravaged nerves and flesh that had long ago had taken on the shape of her entire world.

Stray thoughts came and went. There was no time; there rarely was a place any more.

Memories were still vivid but even them, as so many of them were tactile and auditory, they could become confused easily in the constant fog of the medications that she didn't feel she needed.

One thing did remain supreme however.

Fear!

She knew that each day, the darkness was getting a little bit closer. She knew that each day, things were getting a little bit softer to her ears, a little bit quieter. This was unacceptable to her. This she could not take! She knew that out there, out in the world outside of her broken shell of a body, her friend, her partner, her soul mate, her life, was still going, still functioning, still living day to day and she would not desert him while there was a breath in her body.

But the darkness was getting closer and she was getting so tired and weak!

But she owed him so much! He had lost a foot when he had pushed her out of the way of another wacko machine. He had lost his little finger when he had grabbed her unconscious body just as it fell over into a pit and his one free hand had gotten caught in a cable trying to stop their fall. There were too many times to mention when he's saved her without injury more sever than a slash or bruise.

_We have been partners in every sense of the word, in every aspect of our lives,_ she thought for what had to be the billionth time. It was only by the repeated reruns of her life with him that she was able to find the strength to keep the darkness at bay!

_I know that he thinks that he was still doing the sidekick thing at times, but he never saw it from the bad guys point of view. And I made sure that he was right there with me, at my shoulder; hand on whatever award or medal that was being presented because he earned it just as much as I did._

And while she cursed the darkness around her and cursed the blindness, numbness and pain in her shattered body, _and what kind of selfless, wonderful man would eagerly want to make love to a scarred, legless, one-armed, one breasted husk of a woman? And do so repeatedly for so many years. For him, for those reasons and for so much more, I will fight the darkness. I will win this battle. I can do this! I can do anything. I'm Kim Possible-Stoppable._


	3. Ron

"KP?" he called softly.

He saw a very slight jerk to her head. It jerked in several small movements as if she was searching for him.

"KP?"

"Ron?" buzzed the mechanical box lying atop of her throat.

The tears were flowing down his cheeks without shame; joy flowing with pain and sorrow.

"It's past midnight my Love. Happy Anniversary. Sixty years of marriage."

"Ron?" was all the box said again and there was movement under the blankets on his side. He pulled them back to find her hand, searching frantically for his, attempting to fold itself into his palm with what little strength it had once it found its place there.

It felt so much like it belonged there.

But right now, he wanted something else there as well.

His free hand dipped into his pocket and came out with it. The two symbols were there, hers and his. Her treasured item was there, having been rescued when she'd been maimed and forever kept on a thin necklace around her neck ever since. It of course had been removed when she had been brought in here. It was time to restore it to her, and once again be bonded to his.

So he removed his treasured item and fastened it all together. Of course he had to take his hand from hers in order to do this and she suddenly grew restive.

"Ron! Ron!"

"Easy KP, easy, I want to show you something."

At his voice, she relaxed but she held her palm open, expectant, her unseeing eyes now visible in the darkened room now staring straight up.

Finished, he choked back his heart and summoned all his wits to keep his voice steady. He had what was in his hands held in such a way that he could present each item to her touch one at a time.

"Here KP, feel this—"

She took it and it took her a moment before—

"Ron?" and while the voice box couldn't, her face could—express her wonder.

"Now this," he continued, shifting to the next item.

She didn't say anything. But the wonder on her face grew and tears started to run from the corner of her clouded, sightless eyes.

"A—and finally" The last two items where presented together as well they should be. He barely managed to do this as his will began to waver.

And she did, and she began to sob softly as he now dropped the whole lot into her hand, closing her fingers over it and then taking that hand in both of his as he slid into the chair at the bedside.

"Kimberly Ann, it's been a wonderful life. And you have been the most understanding and beautiful wife that any husband has ever known, the most gracious and attentive companion a man could want, the sexiest, most sensual lover that any male has ever seen and the best friend that anyone could ever have. We have, I think, live life to the fullest, and it was all because of you."

He had to stop and suck in a hard breath before going on. "But Kim, it all has to end sometime. Even you cannot avoid what awaits us all at the end of the road. And you have been trying to do just that and it is hurting you more—"

"NNOOOOO!" came the horrible electronic wail out of the voice box, inhuman in it's agony. Her hand tried to open, tried to grasp at his with sudden strength out of nowhere.

He held onto that hand fiercely and just as fiercely he intoned to her, "Kimberly, for your sake and mine! It's time to let it go!"

Suddenly the door came open and Becky the nurse strode in "What—" she asked startled. She saw Ron and stopped just inside of the door. She lowered her head a little and said in explanation, "her monitors suddenly went off the scale. We weren't sure what was going on."

Ron just looked at her with steady eyes until Becky withdrew.

He looked back to his Wife, his Love, his Universe. "KP."

"Ron," the box managed to whisper. "I cant do it! I just cant. And I wont! I wont do it!" The hand in his scrambled again until she was able to get a part of her fingers holding his with a grip as strong as death.

"I don't want to be anywhere, even there, without you," the box breathed.

He felt a mighty shudder go through him. It was as it had always been. She could always read him like a book.

He got back up to his feet and shuffled so he could lean over to her face. He kissed her cool lips, which after a moment, hungrily kissed him back. He then leaned over to where he could just murmur into her ear. "Then let it go my Love. For I will be right behind you. For my time has come as well, and together we will be once again, but without our pain."

"NNOO!" she whimpered back to him.

"Yes my Love. My time is here as well. Only Ronald knows and I called him a short while ago. It's over. For the both of us. So—it's time. And as you always have, you need to take the lead. As I said. I will be right behind. We will meet on the other side."

"Ron," even through the box, her voice sounded like a frightened little girl. "I don't know if I can do this."

A genuine smile came to his face. "You can do this. You can do anything. And this is the greatest adventure of them all. And we will do it together, for all eternity"

There was a long, hesitant silence. Finally, "you promise?"

"I promise."

Her breathing began to steady and as he came back over her face, he felt her start to relax.

"Ron—I love you."

He bent down for a kiss given, a kiss received, and said back with all his heart, "and you know that I love my Kimberly Ann."


	4. Kim

"KP?" she heard his voice call softly.

She moved her head with a very slight jerk. She did it several more times, her ears, all the senses she had left straining to find him.

"KP?"

He was right beside her. She felt joy. She felt safe. She had to give him an answer. But she was so tired from fighting the blackness. She made it simple.

"Ron?" buzzed the mechanical box lying atop of her throat.

"It's past midnight my Love. Happy Anniversary. Sixty years of marriage."

Love flowed through her. She'd had no idea. She felt herself choke up. She found herself desperate for him. "Ron?" was all she could force through the box and after a moment's panic, she was able to find and recognize her one hand, hoping that she was generating enough movement that he would see—

She felt his touch. Warmth exploded through her. She tried to tell it to grip him. She wasn't sure if it was successful.

A long moment passed. She heard him doing something. Then she felt his hand withdraw. Blind fear gripped her.

"Ron! Ron!"

"Easy KP, easy, I want to show you something."

At his voice, she relaxed but she held her palm open, expectant, she knew her eyes were open and that she was looking up, but nothing but the darkness was visible. She cursed the darkness.

"Here KP, feel this—"

She took it and it took her a moment before—

_Oh my God!_ "Ron?" and while the voice box couldn't, her face could—express her wonder.

"Now this," he continued, shifting to the next item.

She didn't say anything. But the wonder on her face grew and tears started to run from the corner of her clouded, sightless eyes. _Oh Ron, this is so beautiful. But why? Why are you doing this?_

"A—and finally" She heard the catch in his voice and found that it was two items this time and she— She began to sob softly. _Ron, what is the meaning of all this? What is happening? Has something happened to you? Do you have bad news for me?_ Then she realized that he had now dropped the whole lot into her hand, closing her fingers over it and then taking that hand in both of his as he slid into the chair at the bedside.

"Kimberly Ann, it's been a wonderful life. _Oh Lord, I know! _ And you have been the most understanding and beautiful wife that any husband has ever known, the most gracious and attentive companion a man could want, the sexiest, most sensual lover that any male has ever seen and the best friend that anyone could ever have. _ And you were the exact same to me my sweet man. And I regret that I never told you that as much as I should have. _ We have I think, live life to the fullest and it was all because of you. _No, you're wrong, it was as much your work as mine. We were together, we were partners, we were a team. We couldn't have done it without each other!_ "

He had to stop and suck in a hard breath before going on. "But Kim, it all has to end sometime. Even you cannot avoid what awaits us all at the end of the road. And you have been trying to do just that and it is hurting you more—"

"NNOOOOO!" she tried to scream at him with her entire life force and being, suddenly, horrifyingly, realizing his intent, hating him and loving him with all her considerable might at the same moment.

She could _feel_ his hand fiercely holding hers and just as fiercely he intoned to her, "Kimberly, for your sake and mine! It's time to let it go!"

Suddenly she heard something interrupt their moment. A door, footsteps, another presence. She heard a voice. "What—" She felt Ron give her hand another squeeze and the intruding voice, in an apologetic tone "her monitors suddenly went off the scale. We weren't sure what was going on." Steps again, then the sound of the door closing.

She took the moment to try and come up with something to counter, to fend off this horrible inevitability.

There was only the truth

"KP," she heard him say.

"Ron," she cried out through her heart although it came out only as a whisper. "I cant do it! I just cant. And I wont! I wont do it!" The hand in his scrambled again until she was able to get a part of her fingers holding his with a grip as strong as death. _I have to let him know! I have to make him see. He has to know just why I'm fighting the darkness so hard._

"I don't want to be anywhere, even there, without you,"

She felt a mighty shudder go through him. Her heart broke, knowing that now; he would probably blame himself somehow. But it was the only way to let him know just how much he meant to her.

She felt movement, heard a chair scrape, shuffling, saw a shadow pass through her vision, a shadow that got bigger.

With cold startlement, she felt his warm lips come into contact with hers. She returned it with all the passion she could muster.

She almost cried out in physical pain when he broke it, so was her longing for him. She felt him shift, and his words were breathing in her ear.

"Then let it go my Love. _I cant!_ For I will be right behind you. _What?_ For my time has come as well, and together we will be once again, but without our pain."

"NNOO!" she whimpered back to him. But inside her, _Ron, NO! What's happened my Love? You still have years! You have the Great-Grandchildren to tell stories to. Your healthy—aren't you?_

"Yes my Love. My time is here as well. Only Ronald knows and I called him a short while ago. It's over. For the both of us. So—it's time. And as you always have, you need to take the lead. As I said. I will be right behind. We will meet on the other side."

"Ron," _I feel like a frightened little girl,_ "I don't know if I can do this."

She heard a smile in his voice. "You can do this. You can do anything. And this is the greatest adventure of them all. And we will do it together, for all eternity"

There was a long, hesitant silence. _He wouldn't lie to me; he wouldn't say something like this just to make it easier on me. It must be true. Something must have happened to him and his moment has come. He's ready for the final road. He's ready to embrace the darkness and find the light on the other side. He wants me to lead. Oh God, please, does the light wait for both of us? Will we be together on the other side? I couldn't live forever without him._ She had to stop and take a moment. There was only one thing in which she could truly trust. So she asked him, "you promise?"

"I promise," he replied.

_Okay, if he promised me that he would be there for me. I trust him. I've always trusted him. I've trusted him with my life, and now I'm going to trust him with my death. So here goes. I can do this, I can do anything, I'm—I'm Kim Possible, and going back sixty years from today I've been Mrs. Ronald Stoppable—_ and after so long, after so tough a fight, after so mighty a battle, the peace she found when she surrendered herself to the inevitable—

_Because of him, for him, I can do this. Ronald my Love_ "Ron—I love you," and she, for what she hoped would not be the last time, felt his lips against hers and already eager for a reunion where she could once again embrace and love him, she tried to give him just a hint of what awaited. And she was rewarded with—

"And you know that I love my Kimberly Ann."


	5. Ron

And so he sat back down in the chair and waited. He felt her continue to relax and watched her, ignoring the monitors. He could see her breathing slowing, could feel the pulse in her hands receding.

And he slowly leaned forward allowing his own head to come to rest on the edge of the bed in such a way that he still had her hand wrapped in both of his.

Then—_he_ was finally able to let go. For his Doctors had told him that if he didn't take his medication every day, his heart wouldn't last more than twenty-four hours at the most. Well . . . he hadn't taken his medication in more than forty-eight. And it was only his iron will, the same iron will which had allowed him to, despite all of his multitude of fears and phobias, start accompanying his best friend on missions to save the world all those many years ago, that had kept his heart going.

So, two hearts, which for the better part of eight decades, had beat as one, two hearts which had been joined first in friendship then in love, slowly wound down together until—


	6. The End

Nurse Becky came in at a run in response to the flat-line on the monitor. She saw Mr. Stoppable hunched over his wife's hand and immediately assumed that he was crying over it. She stopped for a moment in respect, then tipped toed around him as other staff members began to fill the room behind her. She reached over, silenced the alarm, and started to shut down all the systems. The orders had been specific. No attempts at resuscitation.

But it took a moment for something to register on her own internal monitors. Her head came around with a sudden look of alarm on her face. She had expected once she had made it quiet in the room to hear the sounds of Mr. Stoppable's grief. But she heard nothing!

"Sally!" she called for the Ward Chief who was just pushing through the crowd even as she was reaching out with hands suddenly trembling.

It took only a moment for the two to tell—

The Ward Chief came fully to her feet, her face straining, twenty-five years of this kind of work screaming at her to maintain her composure and professionalism. "Get a gurney Don. Mr. Stoppable needs to be placed in an appropriate state." She then turned to the crowd. "The rest of you get back to your stations. The family would not appreciate a spectacle."

In a few moments, Sally Wald was alone with the two legendary heroes. She only knew Ms Possible as well as most of the public did. She knew Mr. Stoppable a little better through the daily contact she'd had over the last many months. She, like all of the staff, had been impressed by the many celebrities and dignitaries that had come through to pay their respects since Ms Possible had entered the terminal phase.

But this—

"They went together," she whispered to herself, only half believing it.

She squared her shoulders. The orderly would be back with the gurney in a minute. Normally, it wasn't her job to deal with DB's but in this case, she was going to make an exception.

She moved to pull Mr. Stoppable back into a sitting position in his chair when she realized that he and his wife had their hands tightly clasped together.

Again came a massive assault on her time and battle tested emotions. _This is too much like a soap opera_, trying to be as cynical as she could to counteract the emotions roaring through her.

She reached in and carefully started to pry their hands apart, desperately wanting to get this over with before the orderly got there and saw her in this condition.

She got his top hand open, started to pull it off of his wife's hand which came open and—

_Oh Dear God!_

In Ms Possible's palm, lay a tangle of sliver and gold. With a quick, furtive look toward the door, she reached in and with nervous fingers, she gently picked it up.

What she found, was a minutely fine gold chain, supple and brilliant. On it, was a Silver Cross and Star of David. Then, also hanging from it but banded together by an equally fine gold chain, were two wedding rings. She looked down at Mr. Stoppable and saw the fresh marks on his left ring finger where his was missing.

Holding this monument to eternal love in front of her, having to bring her other hand to her throat to keep from choking on her sudden, overwhelming feelings, Sally Wald looked at it, then looked at the two forms, no longer in pain, now at peace and with a voice, cracking with emotion, "Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable. Inseparable!"

* * *

A/N

My first attempts to publish anything, anywhere. I found this site just this Christmas 2004 and immediately got lost in it. Have hemmed and hawed about taking the plunge until I came across the works of captainkodak1. Upon looking at his bio and finding that he was an old guy like me, it gave me the courage to finely do this. And it is to him that I dedicate these stories and tell him to keep up the good work for all us 'old guys'.


End file.
